


I Don't Need Help!

by Shameless_Yet_Nameless



Series: Both Sides of the Story [1]
Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: M/M, Multiple Perspectives, Romance, Shy Thomas, sneaky behavior, stubborn newt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-31 22:38:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13984782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shameless_Yet_Nameless/pseuds/Shameless_Yet_Nameless
Summary: All of Newt's friends try to help him out with math, but Newt never wants it. He likes to think he can do it all on his own. problem is, he's on the verge of failing....again. But then the cute boy in the library offers help and suddenly, it doesn't feel so much as help as it does friendship....or more





	1. Newt

**Author's Note:**

> so this is a new series i started. it'll essentially be one-shot type things but from both Newt and Thomas' points of view so it'll have two chapters. this one has Newt's side of things and the second will have Thomas'. Let me know if this is good and yall want more of it.

“That’s not how you do it. Carry the four and then-

  
“I can do it myself, thanks.” Newt interrupts rudely, glaring at Minho who had been interrupting constantly in the midst of Newt’s attempts to complete his homework. 

  
“Not correctly.” Minho points out, not faltering even when Newt’s glare intensified. His eyes were practically a fire spreading, daring Minho to keep going.

  
“Newt, you’re going to have to retake the class if you don’t pass. If you don’t do the homework right, you’ll do the test wrong too and then-

  
“I’ll fail and blah blah. I know Minho. Let me do it on my own now thank you.” Newt interrupts again, shaking his head at Minho. The dark-haired boy sighed and muttered something about ungratefulness before tending to his own assignment. The two sat side by side, deliberately focused intensely on their work in order to make the party later that night. But at the rate Newt was at, his homework wouldn’t be getting done for another week. 

 

  
The blonde unconsciously muttered the steps to solving his current absolute value inequality aloud and angrily led his pencil to and fro on his paper, making a mess up letters and numbers that left him lost as to what the answer was. 

  
“It’s math. Why would they put bloody letters in it?! Shucking stupid professor Janson.” Newt complained in frustration, furiously erasing incorrect steps and trying again.

  
“Look if you just square the-

  
“I don’t need your bloody help Minho! Shuck off.” Newt says with malice. Yes it was true that Newt was on the verge of failing. He needed his text next week to go well or he’d have to repeat the class. Something he couldn’t afford to do. Again…but he hated asking for help or receiving it.

 

“Look, I know you hate getting help-

 

“Because I don’t need it!” Newt insists, but his incorrectly done work said otherwise. Minho and Alby, his best friends always tried to help, but Newt wouldn’t have it. Minho sighed again and closed his textbook, rubbing his forehead. 

  
“Newt, I’m just trying to prevent you from having to take this class again. But whatever. I’ll just see you later tonight.” Minho says, walking out before Newt could tell him he was allowed to stay if he just kept to himself. Now more irritable, Newt did his math with more vigor, making more mistakes than last time.

  
When he neared the second half of his practice packet, Newt was outright miserable. None of what he’d done so far felt right and he had to turn this packet in by Friday and receive yet another one.

 

“Whoa, you do it that way? Cool. I actually do it a different way.” Someone piped up, startling the blonde. He peeked up to see a dark-haired boy with glasses, what looked to be freckles, and…the same math packet he’d been working on. Newt furrowed his eyebrows, not recognizing the boy from his class.

  
“You are?” He asks in confusion. 

  
“Thomas. Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is crowded.” The boy asks with a hint of nerves peeking through. As though Newt would say no. the blonde pushed Minho’s empty chair out and offered it to the boy who took it gratefully. 

  
“Did you get number 7? I was stuck on it for the longest time.” Thomas makes conversation, looking at the blonde who wanted to groan. No, he didn’t get shucking number 7. He barely understood what math class he was in. It was the one without the shapes. That was…calculus? Or was it algebra? Calculus had circles, right?  
 

“Oh look! You got that part I didn’t. See I can solve it from there.” Thomas says with a beam, pointing at what Newt thought was incorrect math. 

  
“That’s right?” New asks, wrinkling his nose at his messy scrawling. 

  
“This part is. See, that’s where I got stuck.” Thomas says, showing Newt unfinished steps. “From here you just carry the four and then…see, you got that part too, just missed a little something.” Thomas says, marking on Newt’s packet carefully, tongue poking out in focus. “And that’s the answer.” He says helpfully, pointing at the answer with a satisfied smile. Newt glanced at his altered packet. Thomas was…right. That was what Newt was missing. 

  
“Thanks.” Newt says mindlessly, looking over the steps once more for good measure before getting to the next question. He was pleased to see he’d gotten it right using Thomas’ earlier method. 

  
“What about number 12? That one is the worst. I always forget to square the other side here and then flip the sign.” Thomas groans in agony, somehow sensing Newt’s pain. The blonde felt his lips form an ‘oh’ as he realized he’d forgotten to do exactly that. He slyly fixed his problem and showed Thomas with pride that he had the right answer marked. Thomas looked grateful as he fixed his own packet and they worked through the problems like that. Each making their own mistakes and correcting each other. It was a nice coincidence that they ended up making opposite mistakes, so they came together to get the right answer.

 

“I’ve never seen you in class. Where do you sit?” Newt found himself asking when they neared the last question in the packet. Thomas scratched his head in thought for a moment before his eyes lit up in remembrance. 

  
“Oh right. I take the course online actually. So I actually just printed the packet out from his website. I figured I’d work on them on paper and then enter them in later.” He explains. Newt nodded. That made sense as to why he didn’t see Thomas. 

  
“I’m in no rush for Friday. We’ll have to get the final packet and that’ll just be more bloody hell.” Newt sighs, placing his pencil down with finality. He’d had enough of math for one day. He glanced over at Thomas who looked…happy? Why would he be happy that there was another bloody math packet? He didn’t enjoy math did he?

  
“What’s got you so smiley? We have to do more work.” Newt says curiously, raising an eyebrow. 

  
“Right. No I don’t know. I just-

  
“You _like_ math, don’t you Tommy?” Newt asks with a laugh bubbling inside him. Thomas looked embarrassed and Newt couldn’t help but tease him for being a dork.

  
“P-pft. Okay. Yeah. You got me. I like math.” Thomas caved in, head down. Newt took pity on his new friend and patted his back. 

  
“It’s alright. I quite enjoy my literature class if it helps.” Newt reassures, smiling when Thomas looked up and didn’t seem offended for Newt laughing at him. 

  
“It does.” Thomas grins. Newt doesn’t want to leave without saying something more. Thank you just didn’t seem quite right and it was too early to exchange numbers. He didn’t have a good reason to do it at least. It’s not like they’d made plans to meet up again.

 

“So do you maybe want to meet up on Friday and work on the next packet together? I don’t really have study buddies because I take it online.” Thomas asks hopefully. And suddenly, Newt was glad Thomas wasn’t in his class because that was the perfect reason right there to exchange numbers. 

  
“Sure. Gimmie your number and I’ll tell you when to meet up with me.” Newt found himself saying easily. He was relieved Thomas was good with words because the blonde sure wasn’t. He entered Thomas’ number in and smiled as he left to meet up with Minho at the party. And to apologize. His best friend was only looking out for his best interests after all.

 

-

 

It was already 5 and Newt hadn’t texted Thomas to meet up for the next packet that was due. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t help but feel that it would be awkward to shoot the boy a text just for homework purposes. He didn’t even know Thomas that well. Wouldn’t it be odd? Then again, Thomas _had_ insisted.

 

“There you are. Glad I chanced showing up. Did you forget?” Thomas’ voice chimed, followed by the boy taking the seat across from Newt. The blonde was shocked if anything. He glanced down at his incorrectly half-done done packet and then back at Thomas who bore a friendly smile and completed math packet.

 

“I…

  
“Lost track of time?” Thomas tried, smile staying. Newt choked internally, but nodded toward Thomas who nodded along. 

  
“That’s fine. Ready to check answers?” Thomas asked. Newt wondered how Thomas was so…easy. So laid back. He was so helpful too. He was…just Thomas.

  
“Sure. Sorry about forgetting. I really am glad you came.” Newt says, finally snapping out of his stupor in favor of actually getting work done with his new friend.

  
“No worries Newt. I get it. Math is a pretty hard subject.” Thomas waves off, writing down steps of equations for problems Newt no doubt did wrong. He watched Thomas’ pen glide across the page effortlessly, as though he’d predicted Newt would have trouble on specific problems. It seemed too…planned?

  
“You don’t need help with math at all, do you Tommy?” Newt asks, piecing the bigger picture together. Thomas shot up, deer in the headlights pose stuck on his face.

 

“Wh-what?” He asks, sounding like he hoped he’d heard Newt wrong. 

  
“Math. You’re a right expert at this stuff Tommy. You don’t need any help. You just came here because you knew I did.” Newt sighs, feeling small and weak. Thomas sputtered crazily, affirming Newt’s thoughts. It only succeeded in making him feel dumber.

  
“Newt wait. Don’t feel bad, please. I…I may have exaggerated about needing a study partner, but I didn’t exaggerate how much I wanted to meet up again. I like spending time with you. I mean, all we’ve done is math problems together and I’m having fun. Don’t you think there’s something there? I’m sorry.” Thomas tried, reaching for Newt’s hand. The blonde wanted to tug way, but something in Thomas’ voice stopped him. Being an English major, he wasn’t the worst at reading between the lines.

  
“Do you mean…

  
“Y-yeah. I think you’re kind of really adorable and wanted to ask you on a date but didn’t know how so I kind of just offered math help instead?” Thomas says unsurely, eyes scrunched. Newt thought for a moment and then smiled at Thomas. He did feel flattered that Thomas thought he was adorable. The boy was kind and friendly. It couldn’t hurt. He even managed to trick Newt into getting math help; something Minho couldn’t figure out how to do for years.

 

“Well then are you going to formally ask me out or not?” Newt asks cheekily. Thomas looks like Newt’s handed him the answer key to an impossible exam. His doe eyes light up and he grins more bashfully now.

 

“Would you want to maybe get coffee sometime?” Thomas asks shyly, nudging Newt’s leg from under the table. Newt scrunches his nose. 

  
“Ew. No. You can have coffee. I’ll be having tea thank you very much.” Newt says. And it was quite hysterical really, how Thomas went from looking mortified because he thought Newt was rejecting him, to thrilled that he had a chance. 

  
“Tea it is. I’ll meet you here tomorrow at noon?” Thomas hopes. 

  
“You will.” Newt agrees, packing up his things.

  
“Bye Newt.” Thomas says, still nervous, which Newt thought was adorable in itself. 

  
“Stay sweet Tommy.” Newt tells him, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. He winked when seeing Thomas blush and stalked off home to wonder how this all happened.

 


	2. Thomas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas' point of view

Thomas sat at one of the tables at the library, a bit angry because his roommate Gally had kicked him out of his dorm room for ‘sexy times’ as he put it. Normally, Thomas would be looking for a reason to leave the dorm room, but it was laundry day and he had prepared a load and everything when Gally all but threw him out. Now he sat at a library with nothing to do because he’d already finished all his work. The worst part was that the place was jam packed so he sat with some random girls who just kept gossiping the whole time.

 

He tried to tune them out by placing his head down and lulling himself to sleep when he heard some angry bickering a few tables over. It sounded like someone was trying to help their friend with homework and they weren’t having it. Thomas chuckled at that, thinking it was a little childish. He felt bad when he heard something about failing and having to repeat though and picked his head up from the table, glancing over to see who this was even about.

 

His gaze settled on a pair of guys two tables down. One had dark spiky-like hair and small eyes. His muscles were visible through his t-shirt and he seemed annoyed that his friend wasn’t taking help. The other was a blonde thing with endless legs and a frustrated expression mixed with a dollop of anger. He looked rather cute when he was focused. His pencil made angry marks here and there and Thomas saw him erasing furiously every few seconds. He wondered what kind of math the boy was doing. It was impossible to tell when his only clue was a basic calculator.

 

“Shucking stupid Professor Janson.” Thomas heard the blonde blurt out right after muttering something about letters in math. He then watched the dark-haired boy try to help again, but the blonde snapped at him to the point where his friend up and left, shaking his head. Thomas felt bad for both boys. The dark-haired boy was only trying to help and the blonde was obviously too stubborn to accept it.

 

Thinking quickly, Thomas fired up his laptop and quickly did a search to find a professor Janson that taught math on campus and beamed when he found the teacher’s webpage. He tried to remember what kind of problem the blonde guy was solving and eventually found a pdf file of the packet he was probably doing. Acting fast, Thomas printed out the packet and began filling it out easily, being gifted in math.

 

When he was sure the math was done and he might the right mistakes in the right places, he decided to go in. Since the blonde had trouble taking help, Thomas figured he could try to trick him into getting it while helping him get a good grade at the same time.

  
“Whoa, you do it that way? Cool. I actually do it a different way” Thomas spoke up, glancing at the blonde’s work. It was then that the blonde boy looked up at Thomas in confusion and deep brown eyes locked with Thomas’. Thomas was nearly mesmerized. He was so…captivating.

 

“You are?” He asked in adorable confusion. Thomas cleared his throat and fought to remember his name and plan.

  
“Thomas. Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is crowded.” He asks nervously. There was always the chance this guy told him to buzz off. He didn’t exactly seem completely easygoing. But thankfully, he just pushed out the chair his friend left with his legs and gestured for Thomas to go for it along with a mutter that his name was Newt.

  
“Did you get number seven?” I was stuck on it for the longest time.” Thomas started, easing his way into the plan. It was working pretty well. He easily tricked Newt into thinking it was him that was helping Thomas rather than the other way around and so he didn’t get mad. Newt was surprisingly easy to manipulate, and it was entertaining to watch him act as though he knew more math than he actually did. Eventually, Newt got more curious about Thomas’ surprise appearance, which caused him to nearly panic. 

  
“I’ve never seen you in class. Where do you sit?” He asked Thomas. The brown-haired boy gulped and almost screwed up something great. What was he going to say?! He couldn’t very well tell Newt that he had never taken it, let alone wasn’t even in the class! He’d appear to be a total creep!

  
“Oh right! I uh, take the course online actually. So I just printed it off the website and figured I’d work them here and submit my answers in later.” He says, praising himself for thinking fast. That was smart and actually made sense. That way, the fact that Newt had never seen him before also made sense. He heard Newt sigh and place his pencil down, finally finishing his assignment.

 

“I’m in no rush for Friday. We’ll have to get the final packet and that’ll just be more bloody hell.” Newt says. Thomas smiled wide at those words. If Newt had another packet due Friday, he could try to trick him into getting them to meet up again. He could help him and get to spend time with a really cute and focused guy. It was a win-win. Now he just had to rack up the nerves to get Newt to meet up with him again.

 

“What’s got you so smiley? We have to do more work.” Newt says curiously, raising an eyebrow. Thomas willed to neutralize his expression. The last thing he needed was Newt to catch on that he was slowly developing a bit of a crush on him. They were still at stranger level on their friendship, if they even had one. He needed to be more careful.

  
“Right. No I don’t know. I just-

  
“You  _like_  math, don’t you Tommy?” Newt asks with a laugh bubbling inside him. Thomas couldn’t be more relieved that Newt’s initial thought was that. He could work with that being why Newt thought he was so happy.

  
“P-pft. Okay. Yeah. You got me. I like math.” Thomas lied swiftly, or so he thought. Maybe he was obvious. He certainly hoped he wasn’t. It seemed like Newt bought it with the way he patted Thomas’ back pitifully.

  
“It’s alright. I quite enjoy my literature class if it helps.” Newt reassures. Thomas grinned at that. Newt was kind a literature nerd apparently. That was pretty cute.

  
“It does.” Thomas says. Thomas doesn’t want to leave without saying something that would lead to a promise of another encounter. He had to think quick about how to handle this though because Newt was moving to pack his things up.

 

“So do you maybe want to meet up on Friday and work on the next packet together? I don’t really have study buddies because I take it online.” Thomas asks hopefully, thanking the lord for picking the perfect excuse earlier. This way, asking Newt to meet again seemed natural.

  
“Sure. Gimmie your number and I’ll tell you when to meet up with me.” Newt said kindly. Thomas was relieved Newt agreed and gave him his number. He watched the blonde enter his number in and smiled as he watched him leave. He couldn’t wait until Friday honestly.

 

-

 

Near 12, Thomas got a little worried. Did Newt forget? But he tried to let it go. The day was still young. Maybe Newt needed to recharge from last night and wanted to link up later.

 

At 1, Thomas began tapping on his notebook hastily and winced when Gally yelled at him to stop. He only stopped from fear that Gally might kick him out again. He really didn’t want to be forced out of his room again. He needed to grow a backbone.

 

When it hit 2, Thomas just began making notes on his packets with the problems he knew Newt would struggle with and thought about how he’d incorporate his own ‘mistakes’ into them. He kept checking his phone, hoping Newt would text, but then felt a little pathetic.

  
Near 3:30, Thomas was nearly beside himself. He had been watching Netflix, thinking about Newt’s smile, studying for Biology, thinking about Newt’s eyes, avoiding Gally, thinking about Newt’s lips. That last thought shook him out of his thoughts and he nearly blushed. Why was he thinking about that?! He needed to focus. Newt didn’t see him that way if he wasn’t even texting back about premade plans. Sighing, Thomas laid in his bed and figured he’d take a quick power nap.

 

He woke up again at 5 and frowned when still not seeing a notification from Newt. Maybe the blonde just didn’t want to meet up again…or maybe he just didn’t want to ask! Thomas slipped his shoes on and raced to the library, hoping his hunch was right.

 

-

Thomas nearly made a prayer when seeing Newt sitting at a table, gaze far away. Maybe he was right and Newt just didn’t feel comfortable hitting him up. He decided to take a chance and walk up to him.

 

“There you are. Glad I chanced showing up. Did you forget?” Thomas’ chimed in, taking the seat across from the blonde. Newt seemed shocked if anything. He glanced down at his packet and then back at Thomas who bore a friendly smile and was waiting for an answer. Newt open and closed his mouth, looking a little guilty.

 

“I…

  
“Lost track of time?” Thomas tried, smile staying. Newt seemed too embarrassed to admit that he couldn’t bring himself to message him, so he cut him some slack.

  
“That’s fine. Ready to check answers?” Thomas reassures. He didn’t want the blonde to feel bad after all.

  
“Sure. Sorry about forgetting. I really am glad you came.” Newt says, filling Thomas’ heart with hope. Newt was glad he showed up!

  
“No worries Newt. I get it. Math is a pretty hard subject.” Thomas waves off, writing down steps of equations for problems he thought Newt would struggle with. He was so concentrated on doing so, he didn’t notice Newt’s perplexed expression and then scrutinizing gaze. It was almost like the blonde was analyzing him, and then he said something that had Thomas busted.

  
“You don’t need help with math at all, do you Tommy?”

 

“Wh-what?” He asks, hoping he’d heard Newt wrong. The blonde had figured it out?! No! this could ruin everything and he already started to grow attatched.

  
“Math. You’re a right expert at this stuff Tommy. You don’t need any help. You just came here because you knew I did.” Newt sighs. Thomas sputtered crazily, not able to find the right words to say. It seemed like Newt was about to get up and leave, so Thomas began blurting out anything, wanting him to stay more than anything. Newt called him Tommy for shuck’s sake. It made his heart melt something mushy.

  
“Newt wait. Don’t feel bad, please. I…I may have exaggerated about needing a study partner, but I didn’t exaggerate how much I wanted to meet up again. I like spending time with you. I mean, all we’ve done is math problems together and I’m having fun. Don’t you think there’s something there? I’m sorry.” He tried, reaching for Newt’s hand. The blonde seemed like he wanted to tug way, but something stopped him. Thomas wondered if he caught on to what was implied with those words. He took a big risk with that. What if Newt didn’t even swing that way?

  
“Do you mean…

  
“Y-yeah. I think you’re kind of really adorable and wanted to ask you on a date but didn’t know how so I kind of just offered math help instead?” Thomas says unsurely, eyes scrunched. He can’t believe he was bringing out into the open. He was such an idiot. They barely knew each other. Newt probably thought he was a freak at this point.

 “Well then are you going to formally ask me out or not?” Newt asks cheekily. Thomas looked at Newt with wide eyes, unsure if he imagined that response. But Newt looked happy and expectant, making him feel a little bashful.

 

“Would you want to maybe get coffee sometime?” Thomas asks shyly, nudging Newt’s leg from under the table. Newt scrunches his nose at the mention of coffee and shakes his head.

  
“Ew. No. You can have coffee. I’ll be having tea thank you very much.” Newt says. Thomas was afraid for a second that he was being rejected, but then he heard Newt say he wanted tea and nearly laughed. How British of him.

  
“Tea it is. I’ll meet you here tomorrow at noon?” Thomas hopes.

  
“You will.” Newt agrees, packing up his things.

  
“Bye Newt.” Thomas says, still nervous about the whole ordeal. Newt could very well blow about him trying to help with math the next day.

  
“Stay sweet Tommy.” Newt tells him, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. Thomas felt the skin where the blonde’s lips were burn something fierce and his face flushed as he watched Newt wink at him and walk off.

 


End file.
